[email protected] The History of Cambodia from 1st Century to 20th Century [1] What does Kampuchea mean in “Pali/Sanskrit”? SLK 05/02/2009 In 1967, archaeological excavations at Ban Chiang, in Udon Thani province of north-eastern Thailand, shed further light on the history and culture of the Khmers. The earliest excavations discovered hand-painted patterned ceramics in red colours, bronze weaponry, and jewellery from prehistoric times, excavations in 1974 and 1975 unearthed human remains, painted pottery, bronze spears and axes, bronze accessories, bronze casts, and glass-bead necklaces. The oldest and most precious item-a bronze spear with intricate patterns-was dated to 3600- 3900 BC, 600-900 years earlier than bronze vessels previously discovered in Asia Minor. SLK v.2 [1] What does Kampuchea mean “Pali/Sanskrit?” PIECING together what happened in prehistoric Cambodia, the period before Siamese and Yuonese colonization when written historical records were first well-kept in all Chinese texts and on the base-reliefs of Khmer Ancient Monuments. Many sources of information are used--data collected by linguists who study the movement of languages across Southeast Asia, remains from societies which have been excavated by archaeologists, historical documents kept by Chinese and travelers, and origin myths which are still told today about the beginning of Cambodia and its people. Cambodia is the transliterated name of Cambodja, the remnants of a once mighty Khmer empire that stretched out over much of Southeast Asia.1 Posted: Sun May 16, 2004 3:23 pm Post subject: Our History and misinterpretation History and Misinterpretation When I was young, I hated Vietnamese called me, Khmer. In sixth grade, Kampuchea was named Cao Khmer to make me outraged and asked the geography teacher. I felt frustrated and humiliated because I thought Khmer meant something bad. The teacher frankly answered it was just a name of the country. One day I heard a Chinese talking about Kao Mien and he said I was a Kao Mien. He explained Kao meant high and Men meant people. It made sense because Kampuchea located on the highland. Later a Vietnamese boy called me name “Tho” to make me so mad that I knocked him down in class. Luckily the Vietnamese principal seemed to be fair and I did not get suspended. At that time, two words of Khmer “Tho” overwhelming my mind. I thought they meant I was a wild, barbarian, uncivilized highlander. I started to hate myself and always questioned why did I have Karma to have been born in inferior race of nation less people? Actually Kao Men derived from Khmer. Chinese is a tone language and it can't blend two consonants Kh+m so it needs to make up another syllable Kao. The ending r becomes n like Men. In second hand translation in Vietnamese “Cao Khmer” is far away from the original Khmer. Ignorance and misinterpretation by language barriers caused me suffered as individual and even the whole ethnic people like Khmer Krom. Any further question you feel free to email me [email protected] posted by chauuon Southeast Asia: area south of China and east of India which today is comprised of these countries: Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. 1 [email protected] URL: http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~sophal Page | 1 SLK v.2 Historians believe that people have been living in Cambodia since about 4,000 B.C. The Khmer Kingdom of Funan was the first great empire in Southeast Asia. It became part of the Chenla Kingdom in the seventh century. The golden age of the Khmer Empire began in A.D. 790 when a Khmer rule named Jayavarman II took the throne. His dynasty ruled from the ninth century to the fifteenth century. Its Kingdom was built around the city of Angkor.2 Most European works are based on the thousand-odd archaeological finds of Khmer, Sanskrit, and Champa inscriptions, supplemented by studies of Khmer architecture, sculpture, ruins, and literature. However, they all rely on ancient Chinese annals for discussions about the founding of the Khmer empire and Khmer history up to the ninth century. (The first dated Khmer-language inscription from Cambodia was incised only in 611.) Moreover, they all quote from Memorials on the Customs of Cambodia, an eyewitness account written by Chou Ta-Kaun (Zhou Daguan) in 1297, a member of the diplomatic mission that visited Cambodia during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). His account provides details information on the geography, customs, produce, and commence in the ancient capital of Angkor. More than a first-rate travelogue, it is the only direct, valid account on the history, geography, and culture of the Khmer kingdom, and indispensable to the study of ancient Khmer culture.3 To investigate the origins of the Khmers, we must first turn to the founding of the Khmer empire. Like other ancients, the birth of the Khmer empire has mythical origins. It foundation myth first appears in ancient Chinese sources from 15,00 years ago, long before archaeology yield evidence to either confirm or refute the ancient texts. Called Funan by the Chinese from the first to the end of the seventh century, it became known as Zhenla (Chenla) from the mid-sixth to the late eight century. After that, from the early ninth to mid-fifteenth century, the name Khmer empire was commonly used, from the late Ming Dynasty onwards, Kampuchea. China’s dynastic histories describe its feudatory states, putting on record their geography, climate, customs, products, political and human affairs, and tribute missions to the Middle Kingdom. For the past hundred years, Memorials on the Customs of Cambodia has been the source book for all publications on Angkor and the Khmer Empire. It is even quoted in Kampuchea’s own history books and travel literature. During the eighteenth century, French Catholic missionaries in Beijing translated an abridged version of Zhou’s book, published in 1789 in Paris. In 1819, the French scholar Abel Remusot produced a complete translation. (ibidem) Hence the study of the Khmer empire at its height must not rest on the Chinese texts alone, but must also rely on archaeology and epigraphy over the past hundred years, and architecture and other cultural artifacts of Angkor. 2 Dora Yip, Dayaneeta De Silva: Welcome to Cambodia ( 2001) P.10 3 Peter Wai-Chuen: Angkor Wat (2000) Preface, P.7 Page | 2 SLK v.2 Scholars have ascertained that Hun Tien, or Kaundinya in Sanskrit, the ghost-and-sprit- worshipping conqueror who arrive from the sea, was a member of a prominent Hindu family from India (probably a Brahman), or from the Malay Peninsula. An epigraph unearthed in Takeo in the Mekong Delta the nineteenth century offers the following testimony: A Brahman named Kaundinya, armed with a magical bow, appeared one day off the shore of Cambodia; a dragon-princess paddled out to meet him. Kaundinya gave her clothes to wear, and in exchange, her father, the dragon-king, enlarged the possession of his son-in-law by drinking up the water that covered the country. He later built them a capital, and changed the name of the country to Kambuja. This myth coincides exactly with the Chinese texts except for two significant details: the queen in the text becomes Naji, daughter of the serpent king Nagaraja, and it is Kaundinya, the son-in- law himself, who carries out the enterprise of empire-building. In Hinduism, the serpent symbolises the origin of life, but in Buddhism, it is Buddha’s guardian deity. In mythical terms, the Khmer believe their royal ancestors to be descendants of Naji and therefore blessed by the goods. In secular terms, the Khmer are a people sprung from the union of local natives and powerful conqueror. ‘Kambuja’, an old Chinese transliteration of Kampuchea, is the name of country inscribed on the above stone tablet. It first finds its way into Chinese annals in AD 430 publication of the late Han Annals: In the first year of the Yuan He period (AD 84), during Emperor Xiao Zong’s reign, the Kambuja aliens at Rinan duly made tributes with live rhinoceros and white pheasants. Other names of the country can be found in Memorials on the Customs of Cambodia, written by the Yuan-dynasty diplomat Chou Ta-Kuan (Zhou Daguan) in 1297: To the Chinese, the country called Cambodia is known as Chenla (Zhenla) or Cha’n-la, and to its inhabitants as Kan-po-chih (Kambuji). The present dynasty, drawing on Tibetan religious lore, called the country kan-p’u-chih, a name phonetically allied to Kan-po-chih. The first Chinese publication to use the name Kampuchea is A Study on East and West, published in 1626 during the Ming Dynasty: Kampuchea was the ancient Zhenla. The country proclaimed itself as Kambuji, which was later bastardised to Kambuja. This is how Kampuchea came to be. According to the Late Han Annals, the people of Kambuja first paid tribute to China in AD 84 during the Han Dynasty. The annals do not call Kambuja a ‘state’ but use the expression ‘the people of Kambuja’. Hence it is speculated that Kampuchea was in those days a tribe, and only became chiefdom after Kaundinya’s seven sons began to govern the seven principalities set up Page | 3 SLK v.2 by their parents. Hun Pa’n-huang, who succeeded Kaundinya by a combination of military power and palace intrigue, united the seven principalities to create the Kingdom of Funan.4 From the time Jayavarman I (ca 639-81) moved his capital to Angkor Borie at the end of the seventh century, up until 802, many principalities to the north and north-west wanted to recover their independence.